Flysurfer Peak 2

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Without seeing it in person I'll throw a guess and say it's most likely there so that when you release to the 5th line the bar doesn't go all the way and end up in the bridles of the kite. The chicken loop will stop at that knot on the 5th and not go further avoiding a complete birds nest.

Is your safety on the P2 to the centre of the kite (FDS) or is it off to the side (Like the Speed3/4/Lotus) ? If it's the latter then ignore the above.

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Is your safety on the P2 to the centre of the kite (FDS) or is it off to the side (Like the Speed3/4/Lotus) ? If it's the latter then ignore the above.

Off to the side. It's an interesting line setup - there's four lines to the kite but one of the power lines is spliced halfway down and becomes the 5th line. There is a square metal piece that runs up the line - the knot would certainly stop that and it makes sense. But of course I bowtied the P2 and had the usual 5 line debacle where I had to start disconnecting lines and then I noticed the knot.......

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Hey John! So you have your Peak 2! Lucky you. Looking forward to hear what you think. As you may have noted in the other thread, U.K. Have put up prices so that online shop is no better than Briskites, and just when I have sorted out the cash flow!

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Really crappy conditions today...nothing.....then a 15 knot thermal/gust....then nothing again. Having said that, it's got a fair amount of power and is a little lifty, good depower (gets flappy) and moderately nimble - they're my first impressions. Launches easily. Hopefully I'll get a more consistent breeze this evening and give it or the smaller Long Star a run in the paddock.

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Off to the side. It's an interesting line setup - there's four lines to the kite but one of the power lines is spliced halfway down and becomes the 5th line.

Yeah, that's the normal Flysurfer setup and the same setup on my Peter Lynn Phantom2's.

Quote

But of course I bowtied the P2 and had the usual 5 line debacle where I had to start disconnecting lines and then I noticed the knot.......

You shouldn't ever have to disconnect the lines, essentially at the kite you have 4 lines and whatever the kite has done (bowtie or other) should be able to be undone without removing the lines. When we meet at Kingston I'll show you how to virtually "ignore" that 5th line, we'll fuck up my kite really good and then we'll undo it.

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Just put in my first session with the big cheesburger wrapper....er, I mean the Peak 2 - finished in the dark after a couple hours in the paddock. With a big smile on my face....which is probably THE most important thing. There are some really nice features - particularly the bar which is top notch. It has a nice wide double opening - with the power lines running smoothly through it regardless of how much you turn it. There is a fair bit of bar pressure once the kite starts to pull - but the little stopper ball that you can slide down the line to take the pressure off the bar is genius. Every kite should have one of those. Kite launched and landed easily and didn't misbehave in the two hours of going around in the paddock. Started off in probably 12 knots and the 6m makes a shirt load of power pulling me uphill and into the wind with ease. Even when the wind died to around 6 - 8 knots I was surprised by the ease of which the kite can still park and ride producing lots of power from the apparent wind. Excellent depower. It still gets all 'flappy' when you let the bar out and when turning, one of the corners of the kite flaps around a bit but pull the bar in and everything goes taught. Once or twice I had too much bar out and the edges of the kite folded in towards the center and it took a little while to properly re-inflate the kite but that didn't seem to happen later in the session as I got used to handling it.

Seems to have quite good upwind ability too. I was originally thinking the 6m should be good from 12 - 20 knots but after seeing how light the wind got today, I would say the low end would be more like 6 knots or thereabouts.

All in all, a very satisfying two hour session in the paddock (which is only 150m or so on it's longest edge so by the time you start doing 30kph, the fence is coming up fast). In fact, one of my most satisfying sessions at home.

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In answer to John's question about the knot....YES! Too funny. Funny because I asked the same thing on PKF when I got my first P2. I had gotten it used from Chris at Hardwater. I actually unhooked my lines and worked the knot out of the system, wrote about it on the Forum only to be told it was supposed to be there. With tail between my legs I took things apart again and put it back.

So what's it for you ask? It arrests the movement of the bar up the lines when you pull the ripcord. Without it the kite may go into a real bridle rat's nest. Even as is I've found that the kite can get a bit tangled up. For me the few times I've hit the ejection button with my Peaks have been in some very high wind conditions so the kite rolled around on the ground a bit before I could secure it. No tangles that required undoing any lines, but don't necessarily expect it to be as clean as, say, the Access Re-Ride system.

7 hours ago, .Joel said:

Yeah, that's the normal Flysurfer setup and the same setup on my Peter Lynn Phantom2's.

You shouldn't ever have to disconnect the lines, essentially at the kite you have 4 lines and whatever the kite has done (bowtie or other) should be able to be undone without removing the lines. When we meet at Kingston I'll show you how to virtually "ignore" that 5th line, we'll frack up my kite really good and then we'll undo it.

Agree that you "shouldn't have to" undue the lines, but I have several times after a bow tie event. I think I'm straightening the kite back out correctly but upon relaunch the power and brake lines are now crisscrossed. I know I could work out in my head which way to invert the kite to correct the situation, but I've found it just easier to lay the kite out, make a quick run down the lines from the bar with the lines between my fingers, get down to the larks heads and then just undue one and flip the lines straight.

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Interesting how much they are trying to show the Peaks as kites for jumping. I just really don't think of them as boost kites. I look forward to getting some Snowkiting in some wide open places with soft snow and experimenting with this. I've been reluctant to ride so powered up in close quarters wth lots of fences, etc. around me.

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great video. Thanks for sharing. I really like the new colors. Just goes to show in the right hands that most kites will do everything in at least varying degrees

Just for old times sake. A couple of the early promos of the start of Peak. I remember watching these and thinking it would be forever before I would get them. These videos are only 2 years but that's like 20 years ago in kite enthusiast time.

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One of the big differences that seemed to have improved with the 2nd generation Peaks is the near absence of tip flap. I know I'm looking for it, but even in their own highly stylized and edited promotional videos this tip flap is in high evidence.

Did the original Peaks also sufferer from "tip tuck" like the Peak-2 sometime do? I'm wondering if this sort. Became a Starve Pet to Feed Paul sort of trade off.

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One of the big differences that seemed to have improved with the 2nd generation Peaks is the near absence of tip flap. I know I'm looking for it, but even in their own highly stylized and edited promotional videos this tip flap is in high evidence.

Did the original Peaks also sufferer from "tip tuck" like the Peak-2 sometime do? I'm wondering if this sort. Became a Starve Pet to Feed Paul sort of trade off.

Yup, my Peak 1 9m flaps but I think this will always be the case. Over almost 2 years of owning it, I have come to realize that this is how the kite achieves its awesome depower; as you power out the ends of the kite flap reducing a 9m kite to effectively a 6m kite. It doesn't bother me at all. I have not however suffered tip tuck.

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Looking at the video, I'm surprised at the amount of tip flap even when powered. I don't notice that with mine. Maybe he was so juiced he had it on the slightly depowered setting. Good question for someone who has flown both

I have to totally agree, I too think the new color scheme is smack on. Here's the sick thing; I have my blue 9m P2 out for some repairs (scraped it up pretty badly at Ivanpah in November) and part of me was hoping it would get lost in the mail leaving me no choice but to buy a replacement!

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Great session with the Cheeseburger at 13th Beach recently. Wind was 8 - 14 knots (wouldn't have got to 14 often) and the P2 was well powered, well behaved and provided a fun afternoon of cruising up and down the beach. Speed was pretty good and upwind was impressive too. Very little flapping was evident unless I started seriously depowering it - which I only did on a few occasions. Even in 12 knots or so, the 6m is grunty!! I even had 3 or 4 inches of trim pulled in at one stage to keep the bar where I wanted it and not have too much power. It was very easy cruising with plenty of power on tap.

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Looked like a great time. Glad you got some time on the beach with it.

That bar looks sweet.

Ditto. Bar was a different color scheme than mine (mine being black on right and red on left) but otherwise I couldn't visually see anything different. Got to say the green was a pleasing color, just like the new killer color combos they just released. Flysurfer Peak team seems to have nice color taste!